A sinister chuckle dripped out of Senmitsu’s dry mouth.

Displaying no great show of swordsmanship, he swung his weapon like a club. As he did so the water beneath it rippled as if pulled by some invisible tide, and even the light shifted under the apparent density of the blade’s edge. The Void made direct contact with the electric projectile hurled by Ren and once again a light show lit up the night as frayed bolts and red hot sparks collided and exploded in all directions.

The heat alone from the clash sent out pillars of steam outwards from the impact site. Unlike the unnatural ninjutsu mist, this smokescreen had no staying power and was blown away by the churning winds within moments. When it did clear, however, Senmitsu had never looked worse. Lightning shaped burns ran along both his arms and cut into his now glowing tattoos, and the scent of burnt hair matched the blackened tips of his long locks and eyebrows. His body shivered and twitched on its own accord, and he had even dropped his...

No, not quite. His hands hung limp at his side, yet the Void remained stuck in the air, frozen where it had made contact with the ball of electricity. A myriad of swirling colors now spiraled around its form- the red hot embers from Senmitsu’s Konkaji technique, the blinding white from Ren’s raiton, and an indeterminable black from the blade itself. Senmitsu, with apparently great effort, pulled his trembling arms together to form a seal. It wasn’t a hand seal, at least not one known to modern ninja.

”About time you went for a killing blow. Now I’ve got your scent.”

The swirling energy around the Void churned, shrank, then expanded outward with alarming speed. Right before Senmitsu was swallowed up by it he pulled his head up just far enough to cast a wild-eyed, cracked tooth grin right at Gushiken Ren.

”Life begins with fire-”

”-and ends in darkness. Come forth my Ikamu Boken - my Soul Forge!”

Senmitsu’s sword was nowhere to be seen, along with anything recognizable from the island beach from moments before. Water still churned underfoot but its previously disturbed surface was now a sheer black and smooth plane, warped and bent as if the ocean was curving up and over itself. It reflected nothing but the complete abyss of the surrounding area, with naught a star or meteor or landmass to be seen.

The only light came from glittering embers, suspended in the air and in the water between Ren and Senmitsu, like miniature stars. Senmitsu himself glowed with a gross incandescence, his tattoos having shifted entirely to a deep red matching that of the embers around them. Behind him floated something massive and impenetrable- like a black pearl, hovering ominously. Senmitsu released his ‘seal’ to grab at one of the floating embers clumsily, and held it in between the gauntlets of his fingers like one might a delicate leaf. His fine motor control had yet to return, but even so he was beginning to recover rapidly.

“Wrought iron.” He wheezed and squinted. “Cast from a bloomery furnace seven years ago. Thrown off a ship to...” He held the spark close to his ear, as if listening to it. “...scare away a seagull, it says. Left to sink and rust at the bottom of the sea. How pitiable. It never got the chance to kill a man.”

“My Soul Forge exists to give all these abandoned tools another chance. Generous of me, don’t you think?”

Exerting no effort at all Senmitsu flicked the spark from his gauntlets. It instantly took shape and form from the shadows around it- a simple kunai, seemingly in renewed pristine condition. Several of the other sparks floating in the air likewise took shape, some into shuriken, others into more exotic projectiles. Then with laser focus the dozens of newly reborn weapons shot forward towards Ren, each trailing red hot sparks as they flew through the black air.

Ren, standing dumbfounded in the abyss around him, considered biting his tongue off to try and dispel what he assumed was a genjutsu. Surely, a trick of the light and the mind – and with a bit of pain and some gumption, Ren would be able to break free of it. Instead, he labored to move despite himself. Inside a genjutsu of this level, it was impossible to determine the difference between real steel and trickery, and worse – sometimes it didn’t even matter if it was real or not. The glint of bold embers reflected in Ren’s eye as he struggled to move. Each step in this place felt alien. He realized that he wasn’t even using his water walking technique, reflexive or otherwise to patter across the surface. The water wasn’t just solid. Every step he took, the surface drew him closer to Senmitsu. No, closer to that thing behind him, that black hole. It spun off sparks as soon as Senmitsu grabbed them, seemingly churning out an endless supply of ‘forgotten’ weapons for the man to hurl with abandon at Ren. It had to be an illusion, right? Something that absurd couldn’t be real!

Reality didn’t much care for Ren’s opinion of it. Gullbane made first purchase, landing clean into Ren’s shoulder and he gasped. The unbearably hot blade seared him as if just pulled from the forge. Thinking quickly Ren lifted his feet from the ground and spiraled for the sheer force of the blow, carrying him backwards since any steps he took only drew him closer to Senmitsu. Ren hit the surface of the water and skipped across it, skidding and splashing for a dozen or more rotations until he was able to grip to the surface of it with one hand. As his fingers gripped the surface of the water, something like starlight glittered out underneath the abyss.

No – it was the reflection of the other blades. Ren wrenched the kunai from his shoulder, spiraling the blade around with his middle finger by the ring, and held it out in front of him. Had they moved through the air to follow him?!

Small fry- Ren started to think. As he batted one of the projectiles off course as it came into him – or rather, he attempted to – the sheer force.

It was like trying to parry a cannonball. Ren nearly lost his grip on the kunai as he himself was propelled backwards in a splashing wake of water, the kunai he was attempting to parry digging its point into the flat of his own blade, driving him back.

Getting blasted backwards kept him from getting within Senmitsu’s range, but the homing projectiles meant he was just as badly off far away as he would be up close. His fingers dug into the water but he realized he couldn’t penetrate it either- the density was too great. In fact Ren wondered if he would even be able to swim in that black liquid, or if it would just suffocate him like a tar pit. This battle would have to be on solid ground.

Another barrage of abandoned weaponry struck Ren. He lost his balance and felt the kunai slip past his defense, dragging up his arm and cutting through the meat of his bicep. Blood spiraled out from him, and hung for a moment in the air like it wasn’t quite sure which way to fall – down towards the water, or pulled towards the gravity that was Senmitsu.

Ren dropped the kunai and formed several quick hand mudra, and then fell to one knee, slamming his hand down onto the surface of the water. It rippled around him, some vague suggestion of tentacles that spiraled up out of the water and started to violently bat away the projectiles – but each made contact with one of his thin defenses and immediately boiled the tentacle away, although the projectile itself had lost momentum and fell down to float on the surface of the water beside him. Normal water wouldn’t have been able to stop the attacks, but Senmitsu’s...forge water(?) seemed dense enough to work.

Mizu Tate no Jutsu (Water Shield Technique) Stage 4

Water is collected and formed into a stationary cylindrical tube surrounding the user in a 5 foot radius. This water can be manipulated freely into spikes, tentacles, claws, or other limbs, so long as user remains inside the cylinder. One set of extra appendages can be formed per Stage known in this list. The cylinder will completely evaporate against any ninjutsu.

Stage Four: Can block up to Level 6 physical attacks.

“Man, I’m really runnin’ outta gas.” Ren wheezed. He stood up, shakily, in his torrent of water. “But ol’ boy ain’t looking much better...”

He glared through the shifting water, inky black tentacles waving defensively before him, and formed a single ninja seal – hitsuji – and his own, watery projectiles returned in kind to the original volley. Each jumped from the reflective surface of the water, twisted and distorted as the surface itself, a series of kunai and shuriken.

Suiton: Mizu Shuriken no Jutsu (Water Element: Water Shuriken Technique) Stage 2

Multiple small projectiles are created from any water source in eyesight of the user. These projectiles launch themselves towards one or multiple targets. Upon collision, these projectiles revert to water. Any projectile in a shinobi kit may be created and launched. A number of projectiles equal to twice the number of Stage known in this list may be formed per usage.

Base Effect: 0 point projectiles may be formed and launched

When Senmitsu exhaled, sparks danced across his breath. His placid expression was entirely replaced by something else, some hard to discern emotion that was a mix between elation, anticipation, and bewilderment. His eyes glowed like coals.

“Interesting.” His muscles began to steady and his breathing became regular. With a trivial amount of effort Senmitsu snatched another spark out of the air, which manifested into a long trident. Every projectile slung his way he deflected with ease, although several landed prematurely before even reaching him, as if something had yanked them down to the ground. The last of the suiton shuriken did shatter the shaft of the trident, something that even Senmitsu looked mildly annoyed about. “You put too much of yourself into your work, Gushiken Ren. The Void knows your taste well.” Senmitsu dropped the broken trident unceremoniously. “To pull someone into my Forge...I even impress myself, sometimes.” His gaze shifted to the spherical abyss behind him. “My Konken was born with a gift to drag others down who grow too attached to the material plane. You ought to care less.”

“Not that you’ll get the chance to.” Rather than reach out for a spark again, Senmitsu reached out behind him. His arm entered the ominous black planet hovering behind him. It disappeared as if submerged into the surface of the opaque orb. Then with a great heaving breath Senmitsu pulled his arm from the nothingness. The act seemed to tear away at his already burnt flesh and left a luminous trail where his glowing tattoo pulsated with his heartbeat. His gauntlets, though, look unaffected. Gripped between his armored fingers was a hilt of a sword, but not the black steel weapon he wielded before.

“Fine-grained steel. Molded with powder metallurgy. The gaudy Kirigakure symbol etched on the hilt ruins it, though. What a horrid thing to do to such a well crafted weapon.” As he pulled more of the blade out its length and condition became more apparent. “Last wielded by a man who failed to take his revenge, Razorfin Dazaai. How about it, spineless Jellyfish?”

“Can you carry this weight?”

Senmitsu exploded from his standing position, causing a cascade of water and sparks to burst out behind him. As he swung the sword in his hand the water, the air, even light itself warped around the seemingly innocuous blade. For once he swung like a swordsman and his precise slash flowed like water- though, strangely, his form wasn’t the same as his earlier strikes in the Konkaji style at all. Instead he moved in a manner familiar to most Hidden Mist shinobi- like the snapping shut of a pair of jaws.

Ren rolled his neck as Senmitsu spoke, looking down at the man across his own nose. His expression showed some form of pity or disgust, marred by the scarred unmoving flesh of his injured face.

“This whole time, I thought maybe you were exhausted. Havin’ old-man performance issues.”

His hands formed mudra on Senmitsu’s familiar approach. “But you really don’t care, do you? You might think that’s zen or whatever – but if you ain’t got a lick of pride -”

Ren’s face flared to anger as he finished his hand seals, kicking up the Gullbane. It flickered to life, electricity becoming apparent by feeling tendrils, arcs sparking in the Void’s mirrored, curved abyss.

“- like I said!”

Ren’s kunai collided with the emulated – or perhaps completely improved? - Razorfin Sword. In an instant, electricity snapped between Ren and Senmitsu. Ren’s anger flashed in the lightning.

He had seen this Jaws of Death style many times in his life – especially recently. And he had, somehow, known intimately the rules of the gravity curse. As if he had held it himself, for an untold amount of time. As the weight came onto him, the mass of the kunai in his hands rapidly intensifying, the heat itself seemed to engorge his lightning as it licked out towards Senmitsu.

“Al’ready seen this one.” He sneered. He parried the blade with the kunai, but let the enemy weapon slip past the guard, so his own blade was resting atop the curvature of the blade. The biting tip had found purchase in Ren’s right arm – not his sword arm, but the one that hadn’t been cooked and scarred all to hell recently.

Sacrifices only made sense to those with something to lose. Ren’s jagged teeth clenched together like the snapping of a shark, and the weight of the kunai seemed to suddenly overwhelm him, pulling the blades both straight down. Ren felt something tear and snap in his arm and it completely went numb, dangling to his side. The pain was -

-heavy-

-and he felt himself guffawing out his laugh, although he couldn’t hear it over the sound of his own heart pumping in his ears. The Flame was trapped, wrestling the weight of the kunai atop that sword. The electricity from the Serrated Edge clenching his muscles tight by using the same pressure points of Endo’s little trick.

Raiton: Kiwa no Kyoshi (Lightning Release: Serrated Edge) (as Stage 3)

Collecting electricity along the edge of a weapon, whether bladed or blunt (which can be the user's own hands) and cause it to rise from the weapon in sharp, serrated edges that tear into flesh as any real ones would. They're electricity in the end, however, and when they come into contact with someone they're zapped by it, made slightly numb by the escaping charge of the weapon.

Stage Three: The numbness has grown strong enough that deft movement would be impossible, making this a viable method of disarming an opponent.

Ren spiraled forward with the weight of the kunai, letting it go and kicking his feet into Flame’s shoulders, leaping past him – one injured sword arm held out forward, the other arm dangling behind him uselessly, like a wet and tattered flag. His hand plunged into the depths of that great and confusing orb.

“Let me show you my strength!” Ren shouted, over the sound of his beating heart, the screaming gravity of the orb, and even Senmitsu’s commanding protest. “Oy, oy, oy, oy! Forge! Remember me? I had a different name, in a different time...””

He felt the pressure suddenly let up as the forge seemed to welcome him. His hand wrapped around a hilt that felt completely new and yet comfortable all the same. He pulled it out – from across space, across time – and across Calamity.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Let’s sting ‘em, Narke!”

A long, simple blade – such as an o-dachi. Lightning crackled down the blade on command, and it shifted and screamed as the rest of the Forge, all that discarded unused material, those conjured projectiles, spiraled back into place. Ren was holding more than just an emulation of his other-self’s weapon. It was the heart of Senmitsu’s forge.

The one he’d stolen in that parallel world.

Reality started to break, scream around the cracks forming in the sphere they were trapped in. A typhoon was raging on the beach outside. Wind and rain and lightning threatened at every bend of the void.

Ren stood atop the shrinking sphere, one arm holding the long seversword as it seemed to scream out with its arcing energy, the other hanging down, as if useless.

Even the edge of a Konkaji forged blade could not cut as deep as experiencing betrayal. Gushiken Ren’s unexpected manipulation of the extra weight caught Senmitsu off guard for a second, but once the chuunin’s intention became clear he quickly reabsorbed the weight in the kunai and cast it off with a roar. Ren was already too far to counter attack but the hellish glow from the floating embers gave away his position clearly.

This sting, this pain- not from any attack, but from treachery. Senmitsu only felt it once before. From the woman he’d loved. His master’s wife.

What do you mean, everything you did for me?! You think that entitles you to loyalty, to subservience?

Did you think I would be grateful for the attention? You thought I’d appreciate you killing my partner because you’re obviously so much better?!?

I’d rather die than be chained to trash like you, Senmitsu!

His forge- his forge was being violated by the nobody Gushiken Ren! It felt like a claw in his ribcage tightening around his throat. In the wavering darkness steam rose off Senmitsu’s shoulders as he gripped the hilt of his borrowed blade so hard it creaked, then snapped. The red reflection of the embers in his eyes became not just mirror images, but started to ignite themselves. His veins bulged with rage and his jaw clenched in fury.

Of course, of course, it was all clear to him now. As clear to Senmitsu at that moment as it had been years ago at the foot of his master’s boudoir. He had let himself grow soft, dull. Those attachments weighed him down back then he thought he had discarded that sentimentality, but apparently not. Rather Senmitsu only replaced one fixation on another; in his folly he believed his weapons, at least, could not reject him.

The gloves around his hands disintegrated but did not fade away, instead surrounding his hands in a vortex of blinding sparks. His feet propelled him forward like a runaway freight train, straight towards the rearmed Ren. No words escaped from his blackened cracked lips- even if he could speak, all that would have come out was the smoke from his combusting body. Konkaji Senmitsu threw himself at the chuunin as fire erupted from his veins and roared like the bellow of a furnace, a sound he hadn’t made in a very long time.

Soul Forge

Senmitsu has burned off his gloves, granting him 1 extra Level in all Physical stats. He will continue to burn off items every post, until otherwise stopped.

Bakuha Kame no Jutsu (Blast of the Furnace Technique)

Jutsu Description: To facilitate their soul forge, the user's body temperature becomes dramatically elevated. They even begin to exhale smoke and sparks, their pupils begin to glow like coal embers, and when their blood is shed it can begin to boil. While under the effect of this technique, the user may use 2 Konkaji techniques at once, which can be either ninjutsu or taijutsu in nature. However, to maintain the technique they must burn one of their weapons or armor as fuel, causing it to disintegrate into sparks. In addition their body temperature rises to eventually debilitating levels. This technique, begins inflicting burns onto the user after 6 techniques are used, and will cause them to overheat and pass out after 8, ending the technique. All burned items reform and return to the user when the technique ends, which they can do at any time.

Stage Four: By permanently burning an item in their inventory, the user can gain 1 Physical Level in all stats for the duration of the technique.

The last person to hear such a thing he shredded into pieces with his bare hands. Both of them. Senmitsu intended to do an even messier job this time.

Ren’s shoulders jerked as he coughed out a laugh, adjusting his stance so he could point the heresy in his hands directly at Senmitsu. His eye glared down the edge of the blade, somehow sharper, not showing the mirth in his laugh. It was cold and focused.

“Seething so much you’re catching fire?!” Ren shouted, as he rotated his body and parried Senmitsu’s advance. He was launched backwards with tremendous force, scraping his own blade against Senmitsu’s and flicking himself away, turning the enemy momentum into his own flight.

He flipped through the air and his hands landed on the very edge of the boundary between the Forge and the outside. Slowly, he started to slide down the edge of the great sphere, keeping his eyes on Senmitsu all the same.

“I was even starting to fall for all that zen stuff, yanno? – shit!” He twisted the blade in front of him to catch Senmitsu’s next blow, his speed almost too quick to predict.

But something was whispering in Ren’s ear – or somethings, like a dozen and a dozen more voices crying out to him. His hand was stretched out over the hilt of the blade, which was designed with two hands in mind. Instead, Ren stretched each finger out and braced with his thumb, using the same chakra tricks one used to stick to walls to reinforce his grip on the blade. His training with a titanic blade meant swinging a smaller weapon around like this was practically an ease. He gritted his teeth, looking at Senmitsu’s fury.

“You tryin’ to court me with that breath?”

Ren grunted as he erupted into a flock of jellyfish, gloating supernaturally in the air – and then with a jolt of energy, it became apparent they had massively long, thin tendrils like a cloud all around Senmitsu, each with a sharp toxin.

Stage 4 Gen-tai-jutsu Onigokko – Court the Devil

Raising their sword into an opponent's line of sight, the user will disappear in a flock of birds. The crows will surround the enemy, swarming around them, pecking at them, and, effectively, creating a cloud of black around them. The user, moving amongst the birds-although quite difficult to see, given the right conditions-will then deliver a series of superficial slashes, attempting to match each cut with a peck/claw of the illusionary crows. They may deliver one superficial cut for every point of willpower. (19).

Trigger: Vision - Sword

Somewhere, hidden in the bloom, Ren’s laughter echoed. “Oh, I get it! That screaming, it’s you ain’t it? Your jealous little soul in every bit of metal in this place, recoiling at my touch.”

Bites and tears ripped into Senmitsu’s tattooed skin, but rather than blood out sprayed red hot liquid heat. As he swung and smashed his way through the illusory wildlife, the cracking Void took on a new hue. It too began to pour sparks, bleeding them from its fractured surface like sand pouring out of a broken hourglass. The previously still air of the forge became filled with a growing maelstrom and the air being blown in from the storm outside only stoked the flames higher.

There was no longer any weapon at Senmitsu’s fingertips. Instead, with every swing of his glowing arm he slung scalding hot slag, casting off arcs of molten rage like a sputtering volcano. The man’s frenzy wasn’t even aimed at Ren- Senmitsu's savage slashes sought the sword, the weapon the man wielded, instead of the flesh.

Another bestial shout ripped out from his throat and a torrent of embers flooded out from his shredded lips. The melted iron around his arms flung out and splattered like a deadly rain as he twisted in the direction of Ren’s attack and from Senmitsu’s blackened fingertips a spray of heated metal exploded outward. The energy each piece of shrapnel carried wasn’t just from the scalding heat of the furnace; imbued in every shard was a fragment of himself. The Flame that every sliver of his soul carried seemed to scream as it cut through even the illusions.

the fire of the forge shall consume, belly and bowel

until nothing is left but ash

Senmitsu has burned off his Void via the still active Blast of the Furnace technique, granting another Level in his physical stats.

Combo Archetype: Anlace (Blade Dancer + Tactician)

Special: One with an extra for every 10 Reserves, the Anlace can imbue his weapon with a "cut-all" property, meaning it has the ability to easily cleave through solid, physical objects. It can also cut through Ninjutsu equal to the user's highest Stage in a Taijutsu he knows minus one.

The heat, the rage seemed to rend Ren’s illusion completely in two. For a moment, there was a crackle of energy. A sudden cool gust of what Ren imagined must have been the lingering bits of his own jutsu. Then, there was rolling, boiling heat. Senmitsu’s – was that even a jutsu? - was incinerating everything, down to the very chakra of Ren’s jutsu, and stoking into his body. Even Narke, the blade Ren stole from Senmitsu before slaying him in that dream, cracked and splintered as Senmitsu destroyed his own Void to lash out at Ren.

The Flame. That man! He was burning everything as fuel just to destroy Ren. Even himself.

As Senmitsu raged, his speed increased. What remained of the man seemed to become out of focus, blurry, like some kind of mythological creature. A demon of smoke and flame. Not a forge of creator nor spark of the craftsman, but pure unbridled destruction: the Flame made manifest. Worse still, the entire Forge – this void, this area they battled in – warped in his heat. The air itself was becoming too hot to breathe.

Narke couldn’t be held any longer, as melting metal cascaded down its hilt. Ren released it with a scowl, seconds before it vaporized entirely.

There wasn’t a Swordsman any longer. Or at the very least, no swords to be swung. Ren did his best to keep up but even when dodging Senmitsu’s wild swings, the licking flames sliced through his flesh anyway. Every blow Senmitsu landed felt like it punched a hole in Ren’s flesh- as if he was being struck with the blacksmith’s hammer and reshaped into something else.

Kirigakure’s forehead protector, the hitai-ate, which Ren didn’t wear but kept on his person, felt like a hot iron pressed against his flesh. Senmitsu’s fury was boiling steel.

Was that man – Senmitsu – was he even still in that inferno? Whichever it was, beast or man, lunged forward with speed imperceptible to Ren’s eyes. His hand gripped around his leg with all the same impossible heat that gripped the sword – he’d be able to squeeze right through the meat of his leg, his bone…!

Ren, with so many years of practice, flipped the melting buckle of his belt, and let his pants fall. He continued in his velocity back, now in his fundoshi and sandals, slipping away from the beast. Senmitsu kept moving forward as the pants themselves simply ceased to be – burned away in a single moment, disappearing like lightning disappearing from the sky.

The seal he left on the hilt of the discarded Narke glowed for a quick moment as the Flame collided into Ren’s body, erupting in a shower of sparks and steam, as if every bit of water left in Ren’s body had boiled away immediately.

The wooden hilt of Narke combusted, and the last of the tang of steel slagged away in the Flame’s hands.

Ren stood now behind him, obscured by the heat that was bending the very air, the smoke of the collapsing domain, the ashes of the Forge - -

Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Switch Technique)

Requirements: Power 2, Tactics 2

Description: A common jutsu - used to quickly replace a body with a close by object. Creates confusing among the opponent(s) - creating a chance to escape, or return with a larger strike. Useful for avoiding attacks and hiding from potential enemies. This is a super-speed jutsu, not a teleportation one.

- - but his replacement wasn’t perfect. He had time to write his seal on the hilt of the sword, but in its partially broken state, it had been too small to cover his escape entirely. Skin around his thigh was cooking, his exposed muscle frying like bacon tossed on a hot pan.

“If you’re doin’ me this honor of givin’ your all, then -”

Ren faded away inside that smoke.

His voice seemed to bounce around, twisted by the heat itself. Thunder sounded outside of the Forge, loud enough to shake and rattle the pair of men, over all that boiling heat.

And then lightning struck them both in a cascading energy – and even still that heat seemed a pale imitation to the Flame. The last vestiges of that soul forge pushed away, and the hulking beast (that man formally known as Senmitsu, now truly the avatar of “Flame”) stood on a rapidly drying beach. The waves boiled away before they even got close to his form.

Across from him, now exposed, stood Gushiken Ren (that man known as Jellyfish - -)

“You don’t fear the thunder, Senmitsu!” A massive cleaver was held in his hands. Lightning struck across the sky and the sword and armor on Ren’s body imitated the glow. “You don’t fear your own fate!”

Dance of the Jellyfish

Stage 4

This is an advanced Raiton technique developed by the Kirigakure shinobi Gushiken Ren, specifically for the purposes of assassinating The Flame, a disgraced Seven Swordsman.

After performing the required hand seals (rapidly performed, but starting with the snake seal, holding on ox for a breath, and then finally ending on dragon), the technique is called out into action. Blue-white electricity, visible to the naked eye, traces around the final dragon seal and then is pulled manually up the right arm by the shinobi, like a crackling cage sleeve. Once the sleeve is pulled up to the shoulder, the shinobi can relax his stance and allow the technique to take hold - crackling up across his back and forming a halo of energy via an arc between his shoulders. Multiple, misty tentacles start to form from the plasma and float from his upper back - granting the name of this technique.

This stance allows the shinobi the following benefits -

He may summon a lightning weapon to his left hand that matches the weight/mass, edge, and cutting alignment as required by any taijutsu he knows. Typically, he summons a replica of his own head-chopping cleaver - but in reality, he can pull any weapon he likes from the jellyfish tentacles. This weapons exist just as long as they're required to, and then can be flashed away and called back again almost immediately. This acts akin to the Recall item modification, and allows him an advantage against opponents who wish to bind, corrupt, or otherwise remove his weapon advantage.

He may use his right arm's electric sleeve as traditional iron limb armor - at the point of contact, the faint illusion of a samurai's armor is visible in the arcing defense.

You can't escape from crossing fate! - Because this technique was developed using knowledge from the other side of the Calamity, it cannot be divined or foreseen - events during this technique can change their projected paths, and those who try to use divination or other scrying techniques during this technique see only Ren alone, silhouetted by a burning eclipse. Quantum effects (such as the ability to see timelines) or other effects based on fate, time, or positions in space, are equally blind to this technique. It exists purely in the moment it is called, like a flash of lightning.

Ren shifted from his defensive stance, and then pushed forward. Every step was agony. He could hear this thigh broiling away. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in a hole in the cool, wet sand, and just die. There was a version of Ren that would have done just that – another who never would have gotten in this situation. How many “Rens” existed? On that other side of the Eclipse, on that mountain?

It didn’t matter. There was only one “Ren” now.

The one now known as the fool who challenged the Flame, and...

What was different now, compared to back then?

Had his steel lost any of its edge?

Was his opponent any less a creature of flesh and blood, as fragile as any other?

Not quite, it seemed. A red sun unto himself Senmitsu blazed and lit up the surrounding beach as the Void crumbled in its entirety. Behind him another stark shadow loomed, formed by the white-hot lightning of Gushiken Ren. Two stars, bound for collision, trapped in a collapsing black hole-

No, no, those were just more foolish thoughts filling a mind addled by rage. Senmitsu turned with his charcoal black teeth cracking with every gnash of his jaw. No weapon could strike him down. He was the Flame, a Konkaji prodigy, heir to techniques not known by any living mortal! When he deigned to give some lowly, ugly vermin his attention, they ought to have groveled at his feet at the glory he bestowed upon them! Whether it be a woman, a lord, a kunai, or a punk with an attitude, Senmitsu was just a cut above them all. What tool could possibly hope to-

-and there stood Ren alone, silhouetted by a burning eclipse-

Again his boiling eyes deceived him, in that final moment. It wasn’t an eclipse at all. The wisps of incandescent prominence which wrapped around Ren’s shadow wasn’t the light from any sun, but the arcing electricity of his blade. Fire and lightning, truly two sides of the same coin-

-and an element which no heat of the forge could disperse. The searing embers that wreathed Senmitsu’s arm as he swung out again quite literally paled in comparison to the Jellyfish’s raiton. The power that met his knuckles steamed stronger than any coal or ember the man had ever touched. Hotter, hotter than any flame he’d felt in his life!

Hotter than the sun!

There was no splatter of blood as Ren’s ephemeral edge cut Senmitsu from fingertip to neck. The man simply didn’t have any liquid left in him. Instead out sprayed a cloud of charcoal dust and sparks. Senmitsu’s body from the shoulders up was flung up and away, caught in the updraft of Ren’s swing, and the swirling inferno engulfing the Konkaji’s flesh made quick work of the man without any chakra to regulate it anymore.

He managed only one last thought before turning to ash. The fool who challenged the Flame, and...

...eclipsed him.

Konkaji Senmitsu's fire fizzled out.